SPD: program for the 2023 Hesse state election

The SPD wants to create a transformation fund to financially support the restructuring of Hesse's economy. According to the program, this is meant to keep Hesse a strong location for industry and services with secure jobs and good wages.

The SPD wants a new pot of money for the economy. It is called the transformation fund. The money should help companies change. This should keep jobs in Hesse safe. Private investors should be able to join in.

The SPD wants to review the state's business subsidy system and reorganize it around social, innovative and sustainable criteria. The program describes current practice as confusing and inefficient. It adds subsidy guides, an active policy to attract companies and support for resource efficiency.

The SPD wants to check the support programs for companies. Then the state should reorganize them. Social goals and green goals should matter. Subsidy guides should advise companies. The state should bring new companies to Hesse.

The SPD wants to put new businesses and business successions at the center of its economic policy. By the end of the legislative term, founding a startup should be possible within 48 hours. Women founders would get targeted support.

The SPD wants to make it easier to start a company. A new company should be fully set up in 48 hours. Taking over an existing business should also get easier. Women should get special help when they start a company.

The SPD wants to develop a statewide industrial strategy and make a three-way industry dialogue with employer associations and unions the guiding principle of its economic policy. Regional transformation networks would get lasting support. The auto industry and its suppliers would receive help with their restructuring.

The SPD wants a plan for industry in all of Hesse. The state should talk with employers and unions about it. Regional networks should get lasting help from the state. The car industry should get support as it changes.

Under the label "Hessentempo" (Hesse speed), the SPD wants to accelerate planning and permitting procedures. The program sees faster modernization of infrastructure and industrial plants as key to prosperity and to preserving natural resources.

The SPD wants planning and permits to go faster. It calls this Hesse speed. Offices and courts should get more skilled staff. Applications to the state should become digital. Building projects should be finished sooner.

The SPD wants to fund projects that keep local shops open or help new ones start. The program treats lively town centers as essential to a livable state. Support would go mainly to sustainability-oriented offerings, local economic cycles and owner-run businesses.

The SPD wants to keep town centers lively. There should be money for local shops. Small owner-run shops should get help. Cooperatives in villages and neighborhoods should get help too. A cooperative is a business owned jointly by its members.

The SPD wants to make the state's co-funding of Hesse's tourism regions permanent and firmly anchored. Responsibilities for tourism would be pooled. The goal is higher-quality tourism in rural areas.

The SPD wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. The state should keep helping to pay for vacation regions. There should be one fixed contact point for tourism. Tourism in the countryside especially should get better.

The SPD wants to expand links between research, companies and start-ups. To that end, Hesse is to get its own transfer agency modeled on the planned federal agency DATI. Companies are also to receive advice on EU funding.

Research should reach everyday use faster. The SPD wants a new office in Hesse for this. It should support networks in the regions. Companies should get advice on money from the EU. A visitor center for space travel should be built in Darmstadt.

The SPD wants to amend Hesse's Tariftreue- und Vergabegesetz (law on collective-wage compliance in public procurement) and introduce a separate minimum wage for public contracts. Public contracts and business subsidies would be tied more closely to collective bargaining coverage and worker co-determination. The program argues that the state has a special responsibility as a buyer.

The SPD wants to change the law on public contracts. Companies that work for the state should pay union-agreed wages. There should be a special minimum wage for these contracts. The state should check the rules more closely. Companies with good working conditions should get extra support money.

The SPD wants to make Hesse the leading German state for continuing education. Workers should be able to gain new qualifications while employed, and the party backs a legal entitlement to this. The program justifies this with the rapid change in job profiles.

The world of work is changing fast. So the SPD wants to support more job training. People should get a right to further training. Hesse should become the best state for this.

The SPD wants to strengthen Bildungsurlaub (paid educational leave) in Hesse and develop it into a "Bildungszeit" with a legal entitlement for everyone. More people should use it, including for job qualification as the world of work changes. Political education is to be strengthened as well.

Workers can take time off for training. This is called educational leave. The SPD wants to expand it. Everyone should have a right to it. More people should use this offer.

The SPD wants to create a vocational training guarantee financed by a levy. A Hesse training fund is meant mainly to support young people up to age 35 and to relieve small companies that train apprentices. A state program called "Jugend in Arbeit" and more youth employment agencies are also planned.

The SPD wants a training guarantee. Everyone should be able to do job training. Companies pay into a shared fund for this. Small companies that train people get help from the fund. Young people get more advice when they start working.

The SPD wants to stop funding social services in Hesse mainly through short-term projects and instead rely on statutory rules and a redesigned social budget. Municipalities are to receive the money they need for this. The program says this is how comparable living conditions can be achieved across the state.

The SPD wants to pay for social services in a lasting way. Today, many services are short projects. In the future, laws should secure them. Cities and towns should get more money for this.

The SPD wants to halve poverty in Hesse within five years, working with the federal government and municipalities. It plans an action plan spanning all ministries that focuses on prevention. The program points out that the poverty rate in Hesse is above the national average.

The SPD wants to cut poverty in Hesse in half. This should happen within five years. There will be a plan against poverty. All ministries should work on it.

The SPD wants to promote the self-determination and social participation of older people and counter loneliness in old age. Senior citizens' councils are to be required by law so that every municipality has one. The plan also includes support for mobility, age-appropriate housing and digital services.

The SPD wants older people to have more of a say. Every town should get a seniors' council. This is a group that speaks for older people. There should also be help against loneliness in old age.

The SPD wants to pay public-sector employees better and give them more opportunities to advance. Hesse is to rejoin the joint wage bargaining association of the German states. A new staff representation law is to expand employees' say.

The SPD wants to pay government workers better. Today Hesse negotiates wages on its own. In the future Hesse should negotiate together with the other states again. Workers should also have more say at work.

The SPD wants to make Frankfurt a global center for sustainable finance and create an agency for sustainable finance there. It backs a European anti-money-laundering authority and wants it based in Frankfurt. Mid-sized companies and startups should get easier access to capital markets.

The SPD wants to strengthen Frankfurt as a finance center. Frankfurt should become a center for green investing. There should be a new agency for this. A European office against money laundering should come to Frankfurt. Small companies should get money from capital markets more easily.

The SPD first wants to review all of the state's spending and tasks. A permanent financing instrument controlled by the state parliament is to be created for investments in climate protection, digitalization, education and infrastructure. Debt rules should not block needed investment.

The SPD first wants to check what Hesse spends money on. Then it wants to invest more in the future. For example in schools, climate protection and the internet. There should be a special fund for this. The state parliament should control it.

The SPD wants to revise the municipal fiscal equalization system and abolish the road improvement charges levied on property owners. The state is to replace the lost revenue for municipalities. Municipalities are also to be allowed to earn more revenue of their own, for example from renewable energy.

Towns and villages should get more money from the state. Residents should no longer pay for the upgrade of their street. The state should replace this money for the towns. Towns should also be allowed to earn more money themselves. For example with power from wind and sun.

The SPD wants to use the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states) to push for several new or changed taxes, including a wealth tax, a financial transaction tax and a windfall profits tax. The flat tax on capital income is to go. Tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance are to be fought harder.

The SPD wants rich people and large companies to pay more tax. It wants a tax on large fortunes. Trading in shares should also be taxed. Companies should be audited more often. People who do not pay their taxes should be pursued.

The SPD wants to found apprentice service organizations across the state, modeled on the existing student services organizations (Studierendenwerke). Their main task is to create low-cost housing near the training company. The party also backs a discounted Deutschlandticket for apprentices.

Students have student service organizations. They offer cheap rooms, for example. The SPD wants the same for apprentices. The rooms should be close to the company. Apprentices should also get a cheaper Deutschlandticket for public transit.

The SPD wants more subsidized and price-reduced housing for different groups and plans to expand public housing construction to that end. Municipalities are to get more leeway through a reform of the municipal code.

The SPD wants more affordable homes to be built. The state and towns should do more for this. There should be homes for families, students, and older people. Empty offices should also become homes.

The SPD wants more public funding for energy-efficiency retrofits of buildings so that housing stays affordable despite rising energy prices. Energy standards are to be set with an eye to keeping renovations affordable.

The SPD wants to give more money for renovating houses. Then houses use less energy. That should protect the climate and lower costs. Renovating should still be affordable.

The SPD wants to make housing construction cheaper by simplifying building law and reforming the real estate transfer tax. Planning and permitting are to be faster so that more land is available for building.

The SPD wants building to cost less. For that, building rules should become simpler. The tax on buying land should also change. Permits should come faster.

The SPD wants to ban by law speculative vacancy and other misuse of housing. Land is to stay in public hands as far as possible, and housing construction that does not aim at profit is to be supported.

The SPD wants to ban leaving homes empty on purpose. Nobody should speculate with homes. The state should keep a lot of land. Housing cooperatives should get more help.

The SPD wants to classify more municipalities as tight housing markets so that the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and other protections apply there. It argues that rents have recently risen faster than salaries.

Rents are rising faster than wages. So the SPD wants to protect renters better. The rent brake should apply in more towns. More towns should get an official rent index.

The SPD wants to set up a state program for social housing assistance services that help people in difficult circumstances find a home. Municipal offices are also to prevent people from losing their homes. The program sees having a home as a precondition for taking part in society.

The SPD wants to help people in need find a home. The state should set up a new funding program for this. Towns should have special offices. These offices should stop people from losing their homes.

The SPD wants to launch 10,000 student dorm places during the next legislative term. In the long run, one in five students should have access to subsidized housing. The platform argues that fewer than one in ten students in Hesse currently has a dorm place.

Many students cannot find an affordable place to live. The SPD wants 10,000 new places in student dorms. Later, one in five students should get subsidized housing. Students in expensive cities should also get extra money for rent.

The SPD wants to eliminate parental fees for nurseries and daycare centers in Hesse completely. In its view, education should be free from nursery through to a master craftsman's certificate or master's degree. The program calls this the largest net relief for families in the state.

The SPD wants parents to pay nothing for daycare. This also applies to nurseries for very young children. Education should be free from the start. Families should have more money left over.

The SPD wants to tackle staff shortages in daycare and social professions with more training places, paid training and easier career changes. Tuition fees for training schools are to be dropped. Better working conditions are meant to make these jobs more attractive and raise quality.

Daycare centers lack many trained workers. The SPD wants to train more people. Trainees should get paid and pay no school fees. Work in daycare should also get better.

The SPD wants the state of Hesse to pay two-thirds of daycare operating costs. This is meant to relieve municipalities and providers and make free daycare, more places and more staff possible. The expansion of daycare and nursery places is also to continue.

Daycare costs a lot of money. The state should pay two-thirds of the running costs. Towns and providers then carry less of the burden. There should also be more daycare places.

The SPD wants to expand protection of children and young people from violence across Hesse and adequately fund counseling and prevention. A state coordination office is to link the work at all levels. The program cites a rising number of children who experience violence.

The SPD wants to protect children better from violence. Counseling services should get enough money. A state office should link all the help. There should also be more therapy places for children.

The SPD wants to make the exams for Meister (master craftsman), Fachwirt (certified business specialist) and technician free of charge in Hesse. This is meant to help the skilled trades and the economy secure young skilled workers and spare journeymen from taking on large loans. In the preface, the party also promises to secure training sites and vocational schools.

The SPD wants to make the master craftsman exam free. The same goes for similar advanced job exams. Then nobody has to take out a loan for them. More people should get these qualifications. This should help with the shortage of skilled workers.

The SPD wants to secure vocational schools and training sites across Hesse, especially in rural areas. To do so, the minimum number of students per school is to be lowered, and the state government's "future-proof vocational school" concept is to be halted. The schools are to get more teachers and better digital equipment.

The SPD wants to keep vocational schools everywhere in Hesse. This includes schools in rural areas. Small classes should be allowed for this. The schools should get more teachers. They should also get better technology.

The SPD wants students in dual study programs to be treated like apprentices under the law during their in-company phases. Hesse is to push for this at the federal level. Until then, binding statewide rules are to secure training quality and a minimum pay level.

Some people study and work in a company at the same time. This is called dual study. There are few fixed rules for them so far. The SPD wants to treat them like apprentices. Until then, Hesse should make its own rules.

The SPD wants career orientation to start earlier and be offered in every type of school. Topics such as in-company training, workplace democracy and labor unions are to enter the curricula of general education schools. Career counseling is to be reviewed and, if needed, reorganized.

Students should learn about jobs earlier. This should happen at all schools. They should also talk about job training and labor unions. Career advice should fit young people better.

The SPD wants education to be free of charge from early childhood care through to a master craftsman certificate or a master's degree. Educational success should depend neither on parents' income nor on where a child lives. The teacher shortage in Hesse is to be ended.

Education should be free for everyone. This goes from toddler groups to a master's degree. All children should have the same chances. Where they live should not matter. There should be enough teachers.

The SPD wants to present a concrete plan for turning schools into all-day schools, preferably with mandatory or partly mandatory afternoon programs. The legal entitlement to all-day care for elementary-age children is to be met everywhere and secured in the school law. The party sees this as a contribution to equal opportunity.

The SPD wants more all-day schools. Children also learn there in the afternoon. Every elementary school child should get a place. This should be true in every village and neighborhood. The school law should set firm rules for this.

The SPD wants to make digitally supported teaching possible in every classroom. The rule that learning materials are free is to cover digital devices and platforms as well. A digitalization master plan and a new "Center for Education in the Digital World" are to guide the change.

Schools should work more with digital media. Students and teachers get the needed devices for free. Teachers get training for this. A new center should help the schools. Children should also learn to use media safely.

The SPD wants to give schools more independence in teaching and organization. Written descriptions of learning achievement are to become an equal alternative to grades, since the party considers grades to be of limited informative value. Quality is to be secured through a Hesse education report.

Schools should be able to decide more on their own. They should also be able to try new ways of teaching. Instead of grades, schools may write reports on progress. The reports say what a child can already do. They also show the next learning steps.

The SPD commits to religious education that the state runs jointly with churches and religious communities, and wants to offer it for as many denominations as possible. Schools run by independent providers are to remain secured. At the same time, regular checks are to ensure private schools comply with the ban on selecting students by family wealth.

The SPD wants to keep religion classes. They should exist for many faiths. Private schools should also stay. But they may not pick children by their parents' money. The SPD wants to check this regularly.

The SPD wants to expand inclusive teaching in all school types and equip every school for it in terms of buildings, materials and staff. Children are to learn together for longer, above all in integrated comprehensive schools. Schools in difficult settings are to get smaller classes and more support based on a social index.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. All schools should be able to do this. There will be more staff and smaller classes for it. Children should learn together in one school for longer. Schools with many problems get more help.

The SPD wants to strengthen career and life-skills orientation in all school types and, to that end, introduce the subject Arbeitslehre (work studies) at Gymnasium schools. According to the program, this is meant to give students more freedom of choice for their future path.

The SPD wants a new subject at Gymnasium schools. It is called Arbeitslehre, which means work studies. Students learn about jobs there. All schools should also teach everyday topics. Examples are rental contracts and tax returns.

The SPD wants to support municipalities and nonprofit providers so that adult education centers (Volkshochschulen) and other adult learning programs are kept and expanded. Language support, basic education and civic education are to grow. The party opposes precarious employment in continuing education.

The SPD wants more education for adults. Adult education centers should get help from the state. There should be more language classes. Digital classes should be added too. People who work in adult education should have better conditions.

The SPD wants to end the teacher shortage and canceled classes. To do so, it plans a major expansion of lateral entry into teaching, more university places, and starting pay at grade A13 for all teachers. The party argues that the work of all teachers is of equal value.

The SPD wants more teachers in Hesse. Classes should no longer be canceled. All new teachers should get the same starting pay. This pay grade is called A13. People from other jobs should find it easier to become teachers.

The SPD wants to relieve teachers and principals of administrative tasks and take better account of the hours they actually work. It plans additional administrative posts, an institute for teacher health and an independent ombuds office. The program points to the state's duty of care as an employer.

The SPD wants to take work off teachers. Schools should get more office staff. There should be an institute for teachers' health. Overworked teachers should be able to turn to an independent office. Contracts without pay over the summer break should end.

The SPD wants to expand participation in schools. In the school conference (Schulkonferenz), teachers, parents and students are each to hold the same number of seats. Democracy education is to be anchored in the curricula of all school types.

The SPD wants more say for people at schools. In the school conference, three groups should have the same number of seats. The groups are teachers, parents and students. Students should learn about democracy at school.

The SPD wants to fund school social work at every school and support teams made up of different professions. Schools are to work more closely with clubs, music schools and other partners. Youth work outside of school is to remain independent.

The SPD wants social workers at every school. Schools should work more with local clubs. Music schools should be part of this too. Volunteer work by students should appear on report cards. The SPD also wants more student exchanges.

The SPD wants learning materials to be entirely free of charge and free of advertising, and aims for free lunches at schools. This is meant to counter child poverty. School psychology, school health professionals and protection against sexual abuse are also to be expanded.

The SPD wants learning materials to cost nothing. School lunch should become free too. This should help poor children. Schools should get more health professionals. Schools should protect children better from abuse.

The SPD wants to keep university study free of fees and abolish Hesse's administrative fee. Access to higher education should depend less on family background, so a state program for children of non-academics is planned. Vocational training and university study are to become more permeable.

The SPD wants university to cost nothing. An administrative fee should be dropped. Children of parents without a degree should get help. More people should be able to study without the Abitur school diploma. Part-time study should become easier too.

The SPD wants to give the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) more money and make the semester transit pass cheaper through state subsidies. A Hesse scholarship is to support students entering professions with lasting skills shortages. At the federal level, the party wants to press for a reform of BAföG (student financial aid).

The SPD wants to help students more. The student services organizations should get more money. They run dorms and cafeterias. The semester transit pass should get cheaper. There should be a Hesse scholarship for jobs that lack workers.

The SPD wants to turn the currently voluntary "Kodex für gute Arbeit" (code for good work) at universities into a binding rule covering all staff groups. Fixed-term contracts are to be cut back sharply. Student assistants are to get a collective agreement and, in the short term, 15 percent higher pay.

Many university staff only have temporary contracts. The SPD wants more permanent jobs. Rules for good work should become mandatory. Student assistants should get a collective pay agreement. Their pay should quickly rise by 15 percent.

The SPD wants to reduce teaching loads and improve the student-to-teacher ratio at universities. Digital teaching is to get binding standards, and universities are to teach digital skills. According to the platform, good teaching shortens study times and lowers dropout rates.

University teachers in Hesse have to teach a lot. The SPD wants to lower this load. There should be fewer students per teacher. Digital teaching should follow fixed rules. Students should learn how things like artificial intelligence work.

The SPD wants to give students, mid-level academic staff and non-academic staff more say in universities. As a reference, the platform points to states with "Viertelparität" (four-way parity), where all four groups are equally represented on governing bodies. Volunteer work should be easier to combine with studying.

More groups should help decide things at universities. This applies to students and staff. Students should get a body that speaks for them across Hesse. It should also be allowed to speak on general politics. Students who volunteer should get more time for their studies.

The SPD wants to raise funding for Hesse's universities to the level of institutes jointly financed by the federal government and the states. An immediate program is to offset higher prices. The platform stresses predictability for research and teaching.

Universities in Hesse should get more money they can count on. Prices have gone up, so there should be a quick emergency program. The SPD does not want to wait until 2025. It also wants to pay for more permanent jobs.

The SPD wants to bring the Gießen-Marburg university hospital, sold in 2006, out of private ownership, using all legal means available to the state. In its view, hospitals should be run on a nonprofit or public-law basis. According to the program, privatization has harmed patients, staff, the state budget, and research and teaching.

The SPD wants to take back the Gießen-Marburg university hospital. A private company has owned it since 2006. The SPD says this was bad for patients and staff. Hospitals should not work for profit. They should belong to the public.

The SPD wants to secure outpatient care by general practitioners, specialists, pediatricians and psychotherapists across the state, especially in rural areas. More places to study medicine are to be created, and the state and municipalities are to get more planning powers. Uninsured people and refugees are to gain access to treatment through an anonymous health voucher.

The SPD wants enough doctors everywhere. This matters most for villages and small towns. There should be more places to study medicine. People with mental illness should get help faster. People without health insurance should also be able to see a doctor.

The SPD wants to fund hospitals' investment costs according to need and establish hospital planning for Hesse. Outpatient and inpatient care are to be more closely linked, supplemented by municipal care centers and telemedicine. The on-call medical service is to be strengthened rather than cut.

The SPD wants to give hospitals enough money for investments. The state should plan better where hospitals are needed. Every county should get a tele-emergency doctor. That is an emergency doctor who helps by video. The doctors' on-call service should get stronger.

The SPD wants to address the shortage of skilled workers in health care with more training and university places, appropriate pay and minimum staffing standards. Collectively agreed pay raises are to be fully refinanced, and temp work in nursing reduced as far as possible. The program warns that the shortage puts lives at risk.

The SPD wants more nurses and caregivers. There should be more training places. There should be fixed rules on the minimum number of staff. Higher wages should be fully paid for. There should be less temp work in nursing.

The SPD wants a state care plan to expand care close to home and give family caregivers better support. It envisions more places in outpatient care, day care, short-term care and respite care, as well as care support centers across the state. A strategy to prevent the need for care is meant to let people live at home longer.

The SPD wants a plan for care in Hesse. There should be more care places close to home. Family members who give care should get more help. There should be care support centers everywhere. These are offices that give advice about care.

The SPD wants maternity wards to be within easy reach for expectant parents and every woman in labor to have one-on-one care from a midwife. Midwives are to be paid better, and more training places are to be created.

The SPD wants better help during childbirth. Every woman should have her own midwife during birth. Maternity wards should be close to home. Midwives should get more pay.

The SPD wants women anywhere in Hesse to be able to reach a practice or clinic that performs abortions within one hour by public transit. The same is to apply to recognized pregnancy conflict counseling centers. People on low incomes are to have contraceptives and hygiene products paid for.

The SPD wants women to reach an abortion provider quickly. The trip by bus or train should take one hour at most. The same goes for counseling centers. Poor people should get contraceptives for free.

The SPD wants an action plan to secure medical care for children through midwives, pediatric practices, and children's hospitals. It argues that many parents cannot find a pediatrician and that about a quarter of practices could disappear by 2025.

Many parents cannot find a children's doctor. So the SPD wants a plan for children's medicine. Children should get good care from midwives, doctors, and hospitals.

The SPD wants to give local public health offices more money, better pay, and digital equipment. Health is to be considered in every policy area, and a heat action plan is to protect people from the effects of climate change.

The SPD wants to strengthen public health offices. They should get more money and modern computers. Staff should earn more. A plan should protect people in extreme heat.

The SPD wants to push at every political level for a solidarity-based Bürgerversicherung (a single health insurance for everyone) to end what it calls two-tier medicine. In Hesse, civil servants are to be able to choose between public and private health insurance.

The SPD wants a Bürgerversicherung. That is one shared health insurance for everyone. In Hesse, civil servants should be able to choose. They can then have public or private insurance.

The SPD wants to expand German-language support while also extending heritage-language teaching under the state's responsibility. Greek and Turkish are to count at secondary schools as foreign languages relevant for moving up a grade. Intensive classes are again to have no more than twelve children.

The SPD wants more help with learning German. More teachers should be able to teach German as a second language. Children should also be able to learn their family's language at school. Greek and Turkish should count as foreign languages. Classes for newly arrived children should get smaller.

The SPD wants a state admission program for refugees from crisis regions and better conditions for refugees in Hesse. They are to move into their own homes quickly and live independently. Municipalities are to get more support from the state for housing them.

The SPD wants Hesse to take in people from crisis regions. Refugees should get their own home quickly. Children should go to school right away. The state should help towns and cities with housing.

The SPD wants a right to free integration and language courses for EU citizens and people with a migration background as well. It sees this as a precondition for participation in society. Simpler official language and more migration counseling are also planned.

The SPD wants free language courses for more people. People from other EU countries should also have a right to them. There should be childcare during the courses. Public offices should write in simpler language. There should be more counseling for immigrants.

The SPD wants to act against racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination in schools. Easily accessible counseling and complaint services and diversity officers are to be set up for this. Educational institutions are to stand for sustainability, climate protection, diversity and inclusion.

The SPD wants to fight unfair treatment in schools. This includes racism and hatred of Jews. People affected should be able to complain easily. There should be diversity officers. Schools should also work against fixed roles for girls and boys.

The SPD wants to further implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Hesse and coordinate inclusion centrally within the state government. The state and its agencies are to lead by example, for instance with applications in plain language. Benefits such as the allowance for deaf people are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to do more for people with disabilities. One person in the government should be in charge of inclusion. Inclusion means everyone can take part everywhere. Forms should be available in easy language. Deaf people should get more money.

The SPD wants to make religious education possible for all faiths, in particular Islamic religious education in line with the Basic Law. Cooperation between the state and religious communities is to be developed further. Hesse is to be strengthened as a state with diverse religions and worldviews.

People of many religions live in Hesse. The SPD wants religious education for all faiths. This includes Islamic religious education. The state should keep working with religious communities.

The SPD wants to create a law in Hesse that protects against discrimination and appoint a state commissioner for it. In addition, the state's integration law is to be thoroughly revised to reflect the diversity of society.

The SPD wants a new law for Hesse. It should protect people from unfair treatment. A state commissioner should take care of this. The law on integration should also be rewritten.

The SPD wants to introduce a bill for a state parliament made up equally of women and men. Companies majority-owned by the state are to have a quota for women on supervisory and management boards. The state's equal rights law is to be fundamentally renewed.

The SPD wants more women in politics. The state parliament should have equal numbers of women and men. The SPD wants to propose a law for this. State-owned companies should have a fixed share of women in top jobs. Men should do more care work for children and relatives.

The SPD wants to fully implement in Hesse the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty on protecting women from violence. Protection services are to exist everywhere in the state and be adequately funded. One focus is on accessible places in women's shelters and on prevention.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. There is a European treaty for this. Hesse should carry it out in full. There should be enough places in women's shelters. Women with disabilities should also find a place there.

The SPD wants to expand the state's action plan for acceptance and diversity and develop a strategy against homophobic and transphobic hate crime. Queer youth services, housing projects and care facilities are to be funded. Queer couples are to be treated equally in foster parenting and fertility treatment.

The SPD wants to protect queer people better. Queer means, for example, gay, lesbian or trans. The police should get permanent contact persons for them. Meeting places for queer young people should get more money. Queer couples should be able to become foster parents more easily.

The SPD wants to address racism, antisemitism and discrimination through structural measures, since it sees them as a problem of society as a whole. A diversity quota is to apply in the state administration so that people with a migration background are represented there.

The SPD wants to act against racism and unfair treatment. It says the problem affects all of society. More people with a migration background should work in state offices. A quota is planned for this. A quota is a fixed share.

The SPD wants to set up anti-discrimination contact points and diversity officers at all universities. Studying and an academic career should be easier to combine with family life. A state program is meant to raise the share of women in academia.

Everyone should have the same chances at universities. The SPD wants advice and complaint offices everywhere. Universities should become barrier-free. Parents should get more daycare places and more part-time study options. Women in science should get more support.

The SPD wants to provide enough land for renewable energy and actually use two percent of the state's area for wind power. Hesse is to be among the fastest states in approving such plants. The program justifies this with independence from fossil fuels and affordable energy costs.

The SPD wants more wind turbines in Hesse. Wind power should be produced on 2 percent of the state's land. Permits should come faster. Old turbines should be easier to replace with new ones. The SPD says this keeps energy affordable.

The SPD wants a major expansion of solar energy, giving priority to already sealed surfaces such as roofs, facades and parking lots. State-owned buildings are to get photovoltaics by 2030. Open land is to be opened up in addition, because the program holds that the expansion targets cannot otherwise be met.

The SPD wants many more solar panels. Roofs, walls and parking lots should be used first. State buildings should have solar panels by 2030. Open land should also be used. For example, land next to rail lines or on farm fields.

The SPD wants to double the share of renewable energy in Hesse's heat supply by 2030. Municipal heat plans are to be a key tool for this. The goal is a fully renewable supply by 2045 at the latest.

Heating should become more climate-friendly. By 2030, twice as much heat should come from renewable energy. Towns and cities should make heat plans for this. The SPD counts on heat pumps, district heating and hydrogen. Energy should stay affordable for businesses.

The SPD wants to give municipal utilities more scope to expand renewable energy, since they secure expertise, value creation and jobs locally. Energy cooperatives are also to be strengthened. Collective bargaining coverage and co-determination are to apply in the energy transition industries.

Municipal utilities should be able to do more for renewable energy. The SPD wants to help them. Groups of citizens who produce energy together should also get support. Union wage agreements should apply in the new energy industries. Workers there should have a say.

The SPD wants to make climate protection a central yardstick of state policy. Laws, larger budget items, ordinances and the state development plan are to be checked in advance for their climate impact. Hesse is to become one of the first German states to reach climate neutrality.

The SPD wants to check every new law for its effect on the climate. Large state spending items should be checked too. Harm to the climate gets a price in this check. Plans that harm the climate need a special reason. Hesse should become climate-neutral early.

The SPD wants to make the state administration climate-neutral by 2030 and allow offsets only in unavoidable exceptional cases. The state is to lead by example in expanding renewable energy and in energy efficiency.

State offices should work in a climate-neutral way by 2030. That means they no longer harm the climate. All state vehicles should then run climate-neutral. State buildings should use less energy. The state should set an example.

The SPD wants an integrated climate protection plan for Hesse with reduction targets for individual sectors in order to reach climate neutrality faster. Social and economic effects are to be monitored and cushioned, including through a transformation fund.

Hesse should get a climate plan. It sets goals for areas such as transport, heating and farming. Every 2 years the government reports whether the goals were met. The state makes agreements with companies and helps them switch. Jobs and incomes should stay secure.

The SPD wants to make climate protection a mandatory task for municipalities, with the state providing the necessary funds. Every municipality is to draw up binding energy plans and receive additional powers. Municipalities are also to limit the effects of climate change.

Towns and cities should be required to protect the climate. The state gives them money for this. Every town makes a plan for its energy. Towns may then require renewable energy. They should also provide more green space and shade.

The SPD wants to require heat suppliers to submit plans for gradually cutting their CO2 emissions. Data centers are to be required to draw up plans for using their waste heat. At the same time, the state wants to fund advice and energy-saving concepts.

Companies that supply heat should present a plan. The plan shows how they cut CO2 step by step. Data centers should use their waste heat. Waste heat is heat that arises during operation. The state funds advice on energy and climate.

The SPD wants to create a climate advisory council to advise the state government. Municipalities would receive funding for programs that lower local temperatures. Startup centers for sustainable business models are also planned.

The SPD wants to set up a climate council. This is a group of experts. It advises the government on climate protection. Cities and towns would get money for climate measures. New companies with climate ideas would get support.

The SPD wants agreements with all universities committing them to climate neutrality by 2030. Universities are to lead on sustainability, from construction and renovation to teaching and research. At the same time, science is to be communicated more widely to society.

Universities should be climate-neutral by 2030. This means they no longer harm the climate. The SPD wants an agreement on this with every university. There should be a new research program on sustainability. People should learn more about science and take part in research.

The SPD wants wolf management that adequately funds the protection of grazing animals and sets clear compensation rules. It justifies this with the importance of grazing for biodiversity and habitats. Wildlife rescue stations would also be set up, and animal shelters would receive basic funding.

Wolves can kill grazing animals. The SPD wants to pay for protecting pastures. There should be clear rules for paying for damage. Hurt wild animals should get help at rescue stations. Animal shelters should get steady funding.

The SPD wants a mixed, species-rich continuous-cover forest that can better adapt to the changing climate. Forests would be managed gently, with ten percent left unused. HessenForst, the state forestry enterprise, would get more staff for this.

The SPD wants to use the forest gently. Many different trees should grow there. Then the forest copes better with the new climate. One tenth of the forest should stay unused. The state forestry service should get more staff.

The SPD wants to reduce water consumption and charge a levy on use above the average household level. Water bodies should reach good condition statewide. A program would expand flood protection in light of more frequent heavy rain.

The SPD wants people to use less water. People who use a lot of water would pay a levy. Rivers and streams should get cleaner. Flood protection should get better. Cities should store rainwater better.

The SPD wants to create a network of habitats on 15 percent of Hesse's land so that migrating species can find new living space. The administrations for nature conservation, agriculture and forestry would work together more closely and be better equipped.

The SPD wants to connect living spaces for animals and plants. This would cover 15 percent of the land in Hesse. Then animals can move around. The offices for nature, farming and forests should work together better. They should have enough staff.

The SPD wants all farmland to be managed more sustainably, guided by the proposals of the Zukunftskommission Landwirtschaft (Commission on the Future of Agriculture). Funding programs would be simplified, and support for switching to organic farming would continue. Soil and water would be protected by cutting nitrogen surpluses and pesticide use.

The SPD wants farming that is gentler on nature. Farmers should get funding more easily. Farms that switch to organic keep getting help. There should be less fertilizer and fewer pesticides. That protects soil and water.

The SPD wants to strengthen the family-run farms typical of Hesse and counter the decline in the number of farms. When land is sold or leased, independent farmers would get stronger priority over investors from outside agriculture.

The SPD wants to support family farms. There are fewer and fewer farms. The SPD wants to change that. Farmers should get land more easily than outside investors. New farms should get help.

The SPD wants to preserve and support regional food businesses such as bakeries, butchers, dairies and slaughterhouses. In livestock farming, the proposals of the Kompetenznetzwerk Nutztierhaltung (expert network on livestock farming) would be implemented and compliance checked regularly. Public canteens would buy regional and seasonal food under quality standards.

The SPD wants to strengthen food from the region. Bakers, butchers and country inns should stay. Small dairies and slaughterhouses should get funding. Farm animals should be kept better. This would be checked regularly.

The SPD wants to keep Frankfurt Airport as a central economic engine while expanding noise protection. It plans legally sound noise caps and an extended night flight ban. Airport policy would be oriented more toward collective bargaining coverage, co-determination, and protection of residents and the environment; Kassel Airport would also be strengthened.

The SPD wants to keep Frankfurt Airport strong. At the same time, people nearby should have less noise. There should be fixed limits on noise. The ban on night flights should get stricter. Airport jobs should pay good union-agreed wages.

The SPD calls for a free transit pass for all students until they complete their school or vocational qualification. According to the program, the goal is equal mobility for everyone. Student transportation for all-day schooling is also to be secured.

The SPD wants a free transit pass for all students. The pass should be valid until they finish school. This also covers job training. Children should also learn to ride a bike and to swim.

The SPD wants to guarantee everyone in Hesse a public transit option to the nearest mid-sized regional center within 60 minutes. Local transit is to be adequately funded, and a discounted social ticket is to be added.

The SPD promises a mobility guarantee. Everyone should get a ride to the next larger town within one hour. Buses and trains should get enough money. Poor people should get a cheap ticket.

The SPD wants to reactivate disused rail lines, expand the bike path network, and invest more in repairing state roads. Autobahn projects already begun, such as the A44 and A49, are to be finished, but it does not want to start new ones.

The SPD wants to use old rail lines again. It wants to build many new bike paths. Autobahns already started should be finished. There should be no new autobahns.

The SPD wants to supply all of Hesse with fiber-optic internet and eliminate mobile dead zones. To do so, municipalities are to receive support and permits are to become simpler and faster.

The SPD wants fast internet all over Hesse. There should be fiber-optic lines everywhere. Mobile dead zones should disappear. Permits for cell towers should come faster.

The SPD wants to conduct a fundamental survey of how secure public IT systems are and permanently strengthen the state's ability to fend off cyberattacks. Municipalities in particular are to benefit. Cooperation with other security agencies is also to improve.

The SPD wants to protect the state's computer systems better. The state should spot and stop internet attacks faster. This should also help towns and cities. Citizens should get help with using digital technology.

The SPD wants people to have an overview of and control over their personal data. At the same time, government data is to become freely accessible in order to build trust and benefit researchers and start-ups. The data protection authority is to get more staff for advice.

The SPD wants to protect personal data better. Everyone should know what happens with their data. Government offices should publish their data openly. Personal data stays private. The data protection office should get more staff to advise small companies and clubs.

The SPD wants every government service to be available online by the end of the legislative term. Visiting an office in person is to remain possible but no longer necessary. To that end, signature and written-form requirements are to be largely dropped.

The SPD wants people to do all government paperwork online. This should be done within five years. Anyone who wants can still go to the office in person. A signature should only rarely be needed.

The SPD wants police to be more visible across the state and plans to give every police station one additional patrol car along with the staff to run it. The police are also to get modern technical equipment and use digitalization and artificial intelligence to fight crime.

The SPD wants more police on the streets. Every police station should get one more patrol car. There should also be more police officers. The police should use modern computer technology too.

The SPD wants to raise civil servants' pay and make the police allowance count toward pensions again. In the program's view, Hesse is an unattractive employer compared with the federal government and neighboring states.

The SPD wants to pay police officers better. Police officers get an extra allowance. This allowance should also count for their pension. This should make working for the state of Hesse more attractive.

The SPD wants to establish an open culture of leadership and of dealing with mistakes in the Hessian police. According to the program, this responds to allegations of right-wing extremism and far-right chat groups within the force. Complaints to the independent police commissioner are to become easier, including anonymous ones.

There were far-right chat groups in the Hessian police. The SPD wants the police to deal openly with mistakes. People should be able to complain more easily. They should be able to do this without giving their name.

The SPD wants to thoroughly reform Hesse's Verfassungsschutz (the state's domestic intelligence agency). Parliament is to oversee the agency more closely. The program justifies this with the protection of civil rights.

The Verfassungsschutz is a state intelligence service. The SPD wants to change it a lot. The state parliament should check it more closely. The SPD wants to protect citizens' rights this way.

The SPD announces an action plan against extremism, above all right-wing extremism, which includes a new state foundation. It points to the murder of Walter Lübcke and the Hanau attack. In addition, extremists are not to be allowed to own weapons.

The SPD wants to act more strongly against right-wing extremism. A new state foundation is planned for this. The foundation should help victims and remember them. Extremists should not be allowed to have weapons.

The SPD wants to significantly improve the financial, technical and logistical resources of fire departments, rescue services and disaster response, and to support municipalities in doing so. Training and equipment are to be adapted to the effects of climate change.

The SPD wants to equip fire and rescue services better. This covers vehicles, stations, radio and protective gear. The state should help towns with this. The services should also find more young helpers.

The SPD wants to renovate Hesse's prisons and end the partial privatization of the Hünfeld correctional facility. Security and rehabilitation are to carry equal weight in the prison system. Justice system staff are to be better protected from attacks.

The SPD wants to repair the prisons in Hesse. One prison in Hünfeld is partly run by a company. That is to end. Prisoners should not commit crimes again after release. People who work in the justice system should get better protection.

The SPD wants to reform the municipal fiscal equalization scheme so that structurally weak and rural areas count for more. State agencies are to be moved to regions that have so far been underserved, including one ministry to northern Hesse.

The SPD wants equally good living conditions in cities and the countryside. Rural towns should get more money. State offices should move to rural areas. One ministry should move to northern Hesse.

The SPD wants to develop a distinct youth policy for Hesse and give young people more of a say. Proposed laws are to be checked for their effects on young people. In municipalities, involving children and young people is to become mandatory.

The SPD wants young people to have more of a say. New laws should get a youth check. This check shows what a law means for young people. Towns and cities must involve children and young people.

The SPD wants young people in Hesse to be able to vote in all elections from age 16. The program considers lowering the voting age overdue. It is meant to strengthen young people's say in politics.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age. Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. This should apply to all elections in Hesse. Young people should have more of a say.

The SPD wants to strengthen prevention from the municipal to the state level and expand programs against political and religious extremism. Daycare centers and schools are to teach democracy and media literacy more intensively. The party also aims to reduce youth crime this way.

The SPD wants to do more against extremism. Children should learn about democracy in daycare already. At school they should learn to spot fake news. Youth organizations should also offer more political education.

The SPD wants to strengthen the justice system's workforce through more hiring and more training and make it a more attractive employer. It rejects privatizing the prison system because it regards carrying out prison sentences as a sovereign task of the state.

The SPD wants to hire and train more people for the justice system. Courts should be able to work faster this way. Pay should get better. Private companies should not run prisons.

The SPD wants to speed up the introduction of electronic case files in the justice system and provide the resources needed. Court decisions are to be communicated better to the public. The party also plans a Hessian victims' fund.

Courts should keep files on computers instead of on paper. The SPD wants to make this happen faster. People should be able to understand rulings better. There should be a fund to help victims of crime.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level and in the Bundesrat for people who have lived in Hessian municipalities for more than six years to be allowed to vote there, provided they hold a permanent residence permit. Until then, every municipality is to be required to have a foreigners' advisory council.

The SPD wants to widen voting rights in towns and cities. People who have lived there for more than 6 years should be able to vote. They need a permanent residence permit for this. Until then, every town should have a foreigners' council. This council speaks for people without a German passport.

The SPD wants a democracy promotion law for Hesse, a stronger state agency for civic education and new memorial and educational sites. The platform sees promoting democracy as a permanent task that needs reliable funding.

The SPD wants a law to promote democracy. The state agency for civic education should become stronger. It should get one more location. There should be new places for remembering and learning.

The SPD wants to give European policy more weight in the state and push harder for European concerns in the Bundesrat. Municipalities are to draw down more EU funding with the help of local Europe officers. The state is to approve and co-finance EU-selected projects promptly.

Europe should matter more in Hessian politics. Towns and cities should get more money from the EU. The SPD wants to support Europe officers in the municipalities for this. The state should pay its share of EU projects quickly. The SPD stands up for social rights in the EU.

The SPD wants Hessian universities to receive more European funding and to join European university alliances. Stays abroad during vocational training are to become easier and a core part of training. Mid-sized companies are to get help adapting to the EU's Green Deal.

Hesse's universities should work more with Europe. Trainees should find it easier to spend time abroad. Schools should have more exchanges and partnerships. Small and mid-sized companies should get help to do business more sustainably. The state should measure how well people are doing.

The SPD wants to step up Hesse's international engagement and significantly raise state funding for development cooperation. The benchmark is the United Nations' 2030 Agenda. Municipalities and civil society groups are to get more support for related projects.

Hesse should work more with poorer countries. The SPD wants to spend much more money on this. Associations and towns should get funding more easily. A lottery should bring in money for projects at home and abroad. The United Nations' goals for sustainability are the guide.

The SPD wants to further develop and permanently secure state support for the cultural and creative industries. The games industry would get its own funding line.

The SPD wants to support the creative economy. This includes companies that make video games. These companies should get their own funding program. Parents should be able to learn more about video games.

The SPD wants to give more weight to cultural education inside and outside schools and introduce a statewide culture pass for everyone under 18. The aim is free access to culture for children and teenagers. The platform treats culture as an essential public service, including in rural areas.

The SPD wants more cultural education for children and teenagers. There should be a culture pass for all of Hesse. It is for everyone up to age 18. With it, they can enjoy culture for free. Rural areas should have cultural offerings too.

The SPD wants to keep funding the state theaters and give the independent performing arts scene multi-year funding. Theaters are to become more open, with more diversity in leadership and more outreach programs. The party argues this secures theaters for future generations.

The SPD wants to keep paying for the state theaters. Independent theater groups should get money for several years. Theaters should be open to more people. More different kinds of people should work as leaders there.

The SPD wants to sharpen the profile of state museums and archives, open them further and give them more staff and money. Collections are to be made accessible digitally. Proven looted objects are to be returned, which the platform calls an ethical obligation.

The SPD wants to strengthen museums and archives. They should get more money and more staff. The collections should also be visible online. Museums should give back objects that were stolen.

The SPD wants to support independent artists with higher funding, affordable workspaces and minimum fees. Music clubs are to be recognized as cultural institutions rather than mere entertainment venues and be better protected. The platform cites the sometimes precarious working conditions in the scene.

The SPD wants to give independent artists more money. They should get cheap places to work. There should be minimum fees. That is pay that must not go lower. Music clubs should count as places of culture.

The SPD wants to use incentives to promote cooperation on cultural offerings in cities and rural areas. The Frankfurt RheinMain cultural region and its cultural fund are to grow, and a comparable cooperation is planned for northern Hesse.

The SPD wants cities and villages to work together on culture. There should be incentives for this. The Rhine-Main area already has such cooperation. Northern Hesse should get a similar one.

The SPD wants to preserve and expand the news and information offerings of Hessischer Rundfunk (hr, Hesse's public broadcaster). Public broadcasting is to contribute to democratic opinion-forming as a leading medium and become cross-media. The party commits to the broadcaster's symphony orchestra and big band.

The SPD wants to strengthen Hesse's public broadcaster. It should offer a lot of good information. There should be more programs in easy language. The broadcaster's orchestra and big band should stay.

The SPD wants to raise economic film funding and expand HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the state film funding body. This is meant to close a gap with states that increased their budgets during the pandemic. The platform also counts the games sector among the growing creative industries.

The SPD wants to give more money for films from Hesse. Other German states have raised their funding. Hesse should catch up. Young filmmakers should get help too.

The SPD wants the state to make volunteering more attractive and to commit significantly more to it. The state is also to provide reliable support for both grassroots and elite sports, including swimming lessons.

Many clubs cannot find enough volunteers. The SPD wants to make volunteering more attractive. The state should also support sports in a lasting way. There should be more chances for swimming lessons.

The SPD wants to double funding for consumer advice because, in its view, consumer behavior is changing ever faster. Food inspection would be better resourced. Initiatives that help avoid waste would receive funding.

The SPD wants to give twice as much money for consumer advice. There, people get advice on shopping, housing costs and debt. Food should be checked better. There should be less waste. Repair cafes and swap markets would get funding for that.